Walk a Mile in Her Shoes

Walk a Mile In Her Shoes®: Remember to walk for transgender and genderqueer individuals.

No matter whose shoes you walk in, sexual violence affects everyone. Whether someone is wearing heels and a skirt or sweatpants and clogs, there’s no excuse for gendered violence. Grab a pair of heels and walk a mile with us to show that attire is not consent or an excuse for violence.

About

Remember that when we talk of gender violence, we are not only talking of violence perpetuated by cisgender men on cisgender women, we are also talking about any type of violence against someone who is not the same gender as you are.

While the majority of perpetrators are cisgender men, their targets can be both cisgender women and transgender women, or transgender men or anyone who is genderqueer.

The violence against transgender individuals committed is recognized on the National Transgender Day of Remembrance on Nov. 20 each year. Remember 2012 with us in this video.

But what does cisgender mean?

Someone who is cisgender is someone whose gender identity is aligned to what they were designated at birth, based on their physical sex: a male bodied person who is masculine and a female bodied person who is feminine.

There is a lot of privilege that is granted to cisgendered people. There is also a lot of animosity toward and misunderstanding of people whose gender identities do not align with their birth sex. For instance, generally there is a lot of transphobia directed at transgender people.

What does genderqueer mean?

While genderqueer fits under the transgender umbrella, it in turn is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity is outside of, not included within, or beyond the binary of woman and man. Gender nonconformity can be revealed through expression, behavior, social roles and/or identity.

As those of us who are cisgender and walk a mile in her shoes, remember that we are committing ourselves to speak out against all gendered violence and asking ourselves to empathize with the experiences of both cisgender and transgender women, and genderqueer individuals.